Report Estimates China’s Military Budget at $700 Billion

Welcome to NTD's China In Focus. I'm Don Ma. And for Tiffany Meyer today, our top story. How much money does Beijing actually spend on its military? A new report reveals shocking estimates. The Biden administration is sending a new signal to American businesses not to operate in Xinjiang. That's amid Washington's efforts to press Beijing to stop human rights violations in the region. In Georgia, a bill banning Chinese agents from buying land has become law. A look at other states that have taken the same step and why. You cannot allow foreign adversaries to control something as critical as to our survival. And a highway collapses in southern China, killing at least 24 people. What we know so far and footage of the harrowing moment. How much is Beijing actually spending to grow its military? A new report puts the number at 700 billion dollars, triple the amount listed in China's official data. The amount is also almost on par with the U.S. defense budget. Here's more. The new report's conclusion is close to Senator Dan Sullivan's big reveal last year. He said intelligence officials said the real Chinese defense budget is close to about 700 billion dollars. It's hard to estimate Beijing's true spending. Lack of transparency is a problem, but also because investments in the private sector could benefit China's military, such as A.I. and quantum computing. But these numbers are not listed in the official budget. Even based on official Chinese numbers, Beijing is already the world's second largest military spender, trailing right after the U.S. Zooming out, a look at China's military ambition. Beijing's strategy is to grow from a land power to a maritime power, eventually claiming control over both. The Chinese regime appointed a former Navy chief as its new defense minister. And they're showing that they're not just internally looking towards land warfare or warfare on their borders in ground operations, but they're actually looking globally. Beijing's goal is to break through a chain of islands from Japan to Malaysia. Called the first island chain, it blocks Beijing from projecting its military power into the Pacific and the globe. To break through, Beijing has been expanding its control in the South China Sea, turning disputed islands into footholds for military troops. Waters in the South China Sea are hotly contested, but it's more than a regional issue. The power balance there could affect the globe. One third of global shipping passes through that area. Plus, peace in the region is backed by the U.S. and its allies, including the Philippines. Increasingly, it's being challenged by a more aggressive Beijing. In the waters, Chinese Coast Guard ships have rammed into Filipino boats, directed lasers at vessels, and fired water cannons at Filipino crew. And in the air, Chinese jets have had dangerously close encounters with U.S. aircraft, as many as 180 times in the past two years. The rising China threat has the country's Indo-Pacific neighbors on high alert. Both Japan and Australia have dramatically increased their military budgets. Tokyo on track to become the third largest military spender by 2027, while Australia is looking to double its warships in the coming decade. China's most advanced warship kicking off its first sea trial Wednesday. The move is to test its performance before approving it for active service. This carrier uses an electromagnetic system to launch fighter jets, similar to those on U.S. carriers, but it uses conventional power, while U.S. carriers use nuclear power. China has three carriers, while the U.S. has 11 under its belt. The Senate on Tuesday explored how Chinese money laundering organizations are profiting from fentanyl trafficking. But is the CCP involved in this business? NTD's Sam Wang has the story. A billion dollars in annual revenue, driven by one of the deadliest narcotics in the world. On Tuesday, the Senate caucus on international narcotics control delved into China's money laundering efforts in the fentanyl supply chain. Of all drug overdoses in the U.S., fentanyl remains a primary perpetrator. A small amount that fits on the tip of a pencil is enough to be lethal. Fentanyl productions can be traced all the way back to mainland China, where most of the drug's precursor chemicals are made. Experts say combating the flow of fentanyl requires international efforts. Criminals based in the People's Republic of China have emerged as the professional money launderers of choice for Mexican drug traffickers seeking to move their funds around the world. But this is a global problem, and global problems require global solutions. According to a recent report by the House-led Committee on the CCP, fentanyl kills an average of more than 200 Americans per day, which leads to a record drop in life expectancies across the country. The report says the Chinese Communist Party has been directly subsidizing the production and exports of fentanyl precursors through tax rebates. Through these subsidies, the Chinese government is supporting the flow of fentanyl into the United States and other countries. It doesn't matter what part of our country, which political party you're in. This is just tearing families, communities apart. As of this year, fentanyl has been front and center at several diplomatic meetings between Washington and Beijing. During a trip to China last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the Communist regime's role in supplying the synthetic opioid. And earlier this month, President Biden also raised the issue of fentanyl in a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Sam Wang, NTD News. The Biden administration has a new message for American businesses. Don't operate in Xinjiang. The region is the home of the Uyghur ethnic group, and where the U.S. accuses Beijing of committing human rights violations and genocide against the group. Here's more. It is impossible to do due diligence under those conditions where it has been made essentially illegal by the Chinese government. If it is impossible to do that, then the only responsible thing to do is not to operate in that atmosphere. Due diligence is an investigation to assess whether there are any legal concerns, or in this case human rights concerns, before entering into a contract with a person or business. Li raised awareness for ethnic minorities like the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, saying they are living in fear. Xinjiang is a region in the northwest of China and is where most Uyghurs in the country reside. The U.S. has openly urged the Chinese regime to stop human rights violations, including forced labor and even genocide against the group. To help, Congress passed the Uyghurs' Forced Labor Prevention Act four years ago. The law requires American businesses to prove their supply chains in China don't use forced labor. But the U.S. Labor Department has yet to set up any rules guiding American firms on how to operate in China. Beijing aims to transform the region into an industry hub to make goods like auto parts, solar components, and cotton products and dump them into global supply chains. This way, China could enjoy huge profits driven by little to no labor costs. A new push to protect critical infrastructure. President Biden signed a new memo Tuesday to replace an Obama-era policy. This comes at a time of increasing fears of cyber threats from China. The new directive empowers the Department of Homeland Security to oversee efforts to secure infrastructure and submit regular risk management plans. It also directs the intelligence community to collect and share information with government departments and the private sector, as well as urging minimum security requirements across all critical sectors. Officials say the security of infrastructure like energy, transportation, and even water and sewage are under imminent threat from adversaries. Earlier this year, the FBI and other agencies said a group of Chinese hackers targeting infrastructure has been active for as long as half a decade. Turning our attention now to TikTok. A recent Reuters poll finds a majority of Americans see the China-owned app as an influence tool. Of all survey participants, nearly 60 percent of them agreed that China uses TikTok to sway public opinion, and 50 percent of them supported banning the social media platform. On top of that, the number shows most people think that political candidates shouldn't use the platform to rally voters. Some believe TikTok spies on everyday Americans. The latest statistic comes after President Biden signed a bill that forces TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or else be removed from U.S. app stores. Experts and U.S. lawmakers have long warned of national security concerns linked to TikTok. Certain Chinese citizens now restricted from purchasing land in Georgia. The state is the latest to take up the decision as more states zero in on security concerns. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill into law Tuesday targeting the issue. We cannot allow foreign adversaries to control something as critical to our survival as our food supply, and that's why I'm proud to sign this bill that would prohibit the ownership or acquisition of agriculture or non-residential land within a certain radius of military location. The new act bans any agent of China from buying farmland in Georgia, plus any commercial land within 10 miles of any military bases. Agents of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Russia are also affected by the new law, though the measure also targets these countries. Much discussion among lawmakers at the state capitol focused on China. States including Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas have passed similar bans. The laws gained traction after U.S. fighter jets shot down a Chinese spy balloon last year. Some Democrats criticized the act, calling it discriminatory. Other critics warned the bill could face legal hurdles. An author says the Chinese Communist Party has a military-style strategy to harm and disintegrate American society. That's according to Peter Schweizer. He wrote the book Blood Money after investigating how China deploys fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. He joins NTD's Steve Lance to discuss his book. Peter Schweizer, thank you so much for joining. Good to be with you. Thanks for having me. Of course, Peter, your book Blood Money details China's historical weaponization of drugs against the United States, tracing it back to the opium wars and culminating in the precision deployment of the lethal fentanyl, which we're seeing a crisis throughout our country over the past many years now. Can you elaborate on the military-like precision of this weaponization? Yeah, I think one of the big misnomers about fentanyl is that this is primarily an operation of the Mexican drug cartels. They're, in fact, the junior partners. Just look at every link in the chain. The precursors, of course, many people know come from China. They arrive in the port of Manzanillo in Mexico. That port is actually run by a Chinese company. The precursors are then sent to a town in northern Mexico where 2,000 Chinese nationals help the drug cartels turn these precursors into the cocktail. They then have to put them in pill form. So what do they do? They import, at cost, pill presses and pill molds from China. Once they actually have produced the pills, the drug cartels now need secure communications to distribute this poison across America. What do they use? They use Chinese communication devices and apps because they know that China will not share those communications with U.S. law enforcement. And then the final link in the chain is the money laundering process. It used to be that the Mexican drug cartels laundered their money in Latin American banks. Now they use Chinese state-owned banks and they often use Chinese students in the United States on education visas. This is a Chinese operation with support from the Mexican drug cartels. If you could tell us, what is the CCP's ultimate goal in deploying this fentanyl into the United States? It's part of what they call disintegration warfare. There was actually a book written by that title in 2012. There was an earlier book called Unrestricted Warfare. Both of these books have been embraced by President Xi. The strategy basically says they want to fragment, harm and disintegrate American society. Drugs are a component of that. There are other things that they are doing, but they have had a lot of success in a terrible way in this area because fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for people in America under the age of 45. It's deployed as a hidden weapon. The vast majority of the people that are dying of fentanyl poisoning don't even know they're taking fentanyl. They think they're taking a Vicodin or an Adderall. So this is a weapon that is really crippling American society and costing us some of our best and brightest. At least 24 people are dead after a section of a highway collapsed in southern China following weeks of heavy rain. Authorities say dozens more are injured. Early Wednesday morning Beijing time, a section of a highway in South China collapsed without warning. Beijing has a history of covering up disaster data, so the death toll remains unverified. What do we know is that two dozen vehicles went down with the highway, igniting explosions and fires. Videos from the site show the blackened remains of cars in flames and sending up heavy smoke. The incident happened in China's southern Guangzhou province, where it's been raining for nearly a month. The rainfall ramped up significantly in the past two weeks, along with flooding. It appears the saturated ground beneath the highway caved in on itself. And that's all for today's China in Focus on YouTube. We're now sharing a shortened version of our program here after being demonetized for three years. If you would like to support us, consider donating. Find us at donorbox.org slash china dash in dash focus. Or subscribe to our partner platform, Epoch TV, where you can watch our full episodes. Just click the link down below. Here's what to look out for in our second half. Transferring military gear among the U.S., Australia and Britain might soon get easier. We bring you the details of the new plan and what China has to do with it. Beijing vows to crack down any and all support for Taiwan's independence and echoes its threat to take control of the self-governed island. And threats posed by China to American critical networks becoming a reality. FBI Director Christopher Wray recently warned that risks are upon us now. Our guest breaks down just how serious this warning is. More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Thanks for watching China In Focus. I'm Don Ma. See you soon.